Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Öldürmek itdügüñ beni her gördügüñce hā
Bilürsin anı kim dilemez kimse ḫūn-behā
Ey dil dem-i viṣāle raḳīb irmedür ecel
Āh ol ecel didükleri irer diyince hā
Ḫaddüñle zülfüñi görüp ey dost dil didi
Siḥr ile od ṣaçar meger aġzından ejdehā
Ḳaddüñde ḳaldı dil lebüñe cān revān iken
Cibrīle ṣan ki ġāyet-i seyr oldı müntehā
Gördükçe āftāb-ı ruḫın maḥv olur Münīr
Gün ṭoġsa nā-bedīd olur elbette pes sühā

In English

1. This is why you set out to kill me every time you see me: you know that no one will claim blood money (for me). (The couplet can be read in two ways; the word "hā" may be an exclamation meaning "there it is", or a call, "here, take it".)

2. O heart, the rival's arriving at the moment of union is death itself; ah, this thing they call death comes in the time it takes to say "ha", in the blink of an eye.

3. O friend, the heart saw your cheek and your tresses and said: So the dragon really does breathe fire from its mouth by sorcery.

4. As the soul made its way toward your lip, the heart stayed behind at your stature; you would think the end of Gabriel's journey had become the Müntehâ.

5. Whenever Münîr sees the sun of his cheek he fades away; when the day dawns the star Sühâ surely vanishes from sight.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel); in the edition it is the fourth of the Turkish ghazals (tg 4). The metre is "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sound "-ā": hā, ḫūn-behā, hā, ejdehā, müntehā, sühā. The poem is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 99b, VY 79a, Ü 18a) and in Edirneli Nazmî's anthology of response poems, the Mecma‘u'n-nezâ'ir (MN 28b). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first line of the opening couplet (matla) and the last line of the second couplet end with the same rhyme word: "hā". In Turkish this short sound is both a call meaning "there, take it" and a word expressing quickness, as in the idiom "ha deyince" (before you can say "ha"). In the first couplet the beloved's wish to kill the lover every time he sees him is tied to his knowing that no one will claim blood money for him; "ḫūn-behā", in its dictionary sense, is the compensation paid for a person who has been killed. In the second couplet the idiom "diyince hā" expresses how quickly death comes. The same sound rhyming with two different meanings forms a pun (cinas); this observation is our own.

In the second couplet the rival is likened to death. For the rival to turn up when the moment of union arrives means death to the lover, and this death comes in the blink of an eye. In the third couplet the beloved's cheek is likened to fire and the curling black tresses to a dragon. The dragon breathing fire from its mouth is a familiar image from tales; the tresses falling over the cheek are seen as the dragon spouting fire. The word "siḥr" (sorcery) completes this fairy-tale air.

The fourth couplet carries an allusion (telmih) to the Prophet's ascension (miraç). The Sidretü'l-müntehâ is the place named in the Qur'an (al-Najm 53:14) and known in accounts of the ascension as the boundary beyond which Gabriel could not pass. The poet likens the beloved's stature to this boundary: as the soul goes on rising toward the beloved's lip, the heart has stayed behind at the stature, just as Gabriel stayed at the Müntehâ. Likening the tall stature to a lofty tree, the "sidre" (lote tree), supports this allusion. The parting of heart and soul like Gabriel and the traveller of the ascension is our own inference.

In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) there is a proverb used as proof (irsal-i mesel). That the star Sühâ becomes invisible when day dawns is a truth everyone knows, and it is brought as proof of the poet's fading before the beloved's face. Sühâ, in its dictionary sense, is a very faint star in the constellation of the Great Bear. The same image also occurs in the pen-name couplet of fg 136, one of Münîrî's Persian ghazals. There is a fine contrast between the meaning "illuminating" of the pen name "Münîr" and the poet's likening himself to the faintest star.

Bibliography

Online sources